This independent band of post-rockers have been going from strength to strength since they formed in 2008, from performing with For a Minor Reflection and Soundspell to winning the Studio Sýrland/Rás 2 summer competition. And now they have bagged themselves a deal with German label Kapitan Platte after releasing their fine debut album Ólgusjór! We caught up with the band and demanded an explanation.

Hello Lockerbie! What are you up today?

Hello IMX! This day is actually coming to an end and it has been a really busy, but a great day. After work we usually meet up for band practice, and today was no different. Davíð has been studying music for a while and went to study before band practice. Davíð's music teacher, Sóley, who also released her debut album this year, has taught him a lot how to compose for string and brassbands that has been really helpful when writing the music for our debut album.

Congratulations on an excellent debut album, Ólgusjór! We hear you have signed with Kapitan Platte? Tell us a bit about that new deal and how it came about.

Thank you. This has actually been a long process since they first heard of us. We were interviewed by Christian Grasse, German journalist, who has a radioshow called “Breitband” on Deutschland Radio Kultur (national Germany radio). After hearing about us on the radioshow, Kapitan Platte sent us e-mail with interest of signing us. We are very happy to be signing with them. They will release our album, Ólgusjór, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein in March/April. It will be released in both CD’s and vinyls and to be honest, we can’t wait to get the vinyls. We are hoping to follow the album release with a tour in Germany hopefully next year.

How did you decide upon the name 'Lockerbie'?

Soon after we started we were joined by the 5th member who came up with the name. He told us the story about Lockerbie and actually made a song called Lockerbie. We thought it was a good idea to name the band after it. There was some journalist who thought that we were trying to make fun of the Lockerbie bombing but that's really far from the truth. We truly respect all of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing.

What five words would you use to best describe the band?

Best friends making music together.

What are the elements that have influenced your sound the most, would you say?

Well, it’s a bit difficult to say to be honest. The Icelandic music scene has been really important part of our influences. We really love Icelandic music and the Icelandic scene is really good.

You formed in 2008, but later that year you took a bit of a hiatus. May we be so nosey as to ask why?

Actually we never decided to take a break, it just happened. There are few reasons for that, Doddi(singer/guitarist) joined a band called Soundspell and Davíð was trying new things in his music school by working with a string quartet. We used 3 songs from Davíð's project on our album, Gengur í garð, Kjarr and Síðsumar (only on the Japanese release). But the main reason for the brake was a lack of motivation. We had been playing a lot of concerts in Reykjavík and recorded 2 demos but nothing more that that. We were just 4 seventeen years who liked to play music but didn’t have any plans. This all changed in the summer of 2009. Davíð was driving home from work when he heard a commercial in the radio about a song contest at Rás 2. Davíð decided to send one of our demos in but didn’t even tell the boys about it. Then we were chosen to go to Sýrland (one of the finest recording studio in Iceland) to record a song. After that we have been really active and thrive to be motivated, that’s really important.

You are hailed quite rightly as pioneers of the Icelandic post-rock movement - how did that come about?

Well we don't know if we are pioneers or not, what we know is that we love making music and trying new things, bringing in the strings and brass into our music is adding a bit of unique-ness to it. Also the lighter spirit is spicing it up a bit.

What were you and your contemporaries listening to when this new wave emerged?

All kinds of music from everywhere from classical to rock and ambient to indie.

Have you made any New Year resolutions? And do you have any predictions for 2012, musical or otherwise?

Well, we are not sure if to call it New Year resolutions but right now we are trying to plan out 2012. As I said, we are hoping that we will be able to go on a tour in Germany and perhaps other countries in the near area in early 2012 and we will also play shows in Iceland. We are trying to write new music right now, we have a few new songs that we are working on and we are also hoping that we will be able to finish more in the new year. Hopefully we will go the studio in 2012 to be able to let people enjoy the new music.

What do Lockerbie do to get through these cold, dark winter days and nights?

The best way is to keep yourself busy. We work from 08-16, go study music, play football, play in a band and also have friends that we try to find time to hang out with. We often go out around 7:30 and come home around 22:00 so as you can see we always have a lot of things to do, which is great. When you are enjoying what you are doing, time flies.

Who are you listening to at the moment?

We have been listening to a lot of music lately, both old and new. The new album from Hjálmar, Órar is a great one we’ve been listening to. All of us are big fag fans of Hjálmar. The new album from Low Roar has also been on the player, great stuff.

Do you have any live dates planned for outside of Iceland coming up?

Our album, Ólgusjór, will be released in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemborg and Liechtenstein and we hope that we will be able to go on a tour in these countries in early 2012.
Source: IMX

Caterpillarmen will be supporting Tuneyards on their European tour in February.
Tour dates:
20th February (Switzerland)
22nd February (Brussels)
23rd February (Amsterdam)
29th February (Munich
1st March (St Gallen, Switzerland)
"Siggi", a track from their new album "Babycum" (released December 2011)